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ARTIST STATEMENT

When I was a young girl my mother lent me an old Agfa Isolette 6x6 camera. She had inherited it from her older brother Arne when she was a young girl. This camera has stayed with me since then and worked as a portal into my love for seeing through the lens, the love for seeing altogether. Since then, other cameras came along and has strengthened the love.

 

During my childhood and youth, my family and I spent the summers in an old farmhouse in the countryside in Denmark that belonged to friends of the family. All of us eighter painting or taking loads of film roles in the nature surrounding the house.

 

Photography sneaked into my heart. For many years it worked as a sketching tool for my paintings. I did not realize how deep I was in love with it for a long time. But when I did, oh when I did… The magic, the alchemy, the capturing of time and light on the emulsion of the film. The tones of gray, so soft as a caress of the retina. The perfume of the fixer, the paper, the wonder of the image coming into being before my eyes, alone in the red darkness of the darkroom.


The magic of photography still captures me. It is what comes into my attention, before my eyes, and what the camera with its own life, brings into the world. So, I see it, as a corporation between me and the camera. We do things together, the camera and I.

 

I seek to create visual experiences through a poetic investigative approach. This, in combination with the timeless and dreamy atmosphere of analog photography and especially the historical photography from the beginning of the history of photography as well as the phenomena of light, space, time, and memory are inspirations and fascinations to me in my photographic work. My approach is associative and intuitive. I often write or draw as part of my work process. I think that, in a way, I draw or write my way into what the work is about. When I pick up the camera, it is not always clear to me what I am doing conceptually, or how it might be connected to the “warming up” with the writing or drawing. But as the process progress, things emerge to me along the way both like synchronicities, like meaningful findings or as epiphanies, and often as realizations in the end of the process.

About Me

Michala Norup

Born in 1969

Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Member of BKF Danish Visual Artists

Education

2022-2023 One year international photography workshop at Atelier Smedsby in Paris France with Margot Wallard and J. H. Engström

2016 Cand.pæd. i didaktik (materiel kultur) /MA (Ed) in Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies: Material Culture, Aarhus University

2013- 2016 The MA (Ed) programme in Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies (Material Culture), Aarhus University

2009-2010 Spectrum School of visual Art 

1998-2000 The Graphic Arts Institute

1993-1994 Fine art Photography, K.U.B.A.

1991-1992 Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag,

The Netherlands

1988-1991 The Danish School of Design

Selected exhibitions

2022 Længsel / Longing, Det Lyse Kammer, curated by Jette Ellgaard and Sophie Hjerl

2022 Ingen Skaber Alene with Malene Jorck-Heide Jørgensen, Apostelkirken, København

2021 Sanseservering, Nærværsfabrikken #3, BOXEN, Udstillingsstedet.dk i Sorø (with DeV+)

2020 Direct Message, Berlin

2020 Dagen vare evigt, KunstCenter Silkeborg Bad (with DeV+)

2019 Altid Allerede / Arial Vital|KIKshh Kunst i Kapellet, Sankt Hans Have, Roskilde (with DeV+)

2019 Imellem tusinde tider|Gammelgaard, Herlev, (with DeV+)

2018 Om en forlæns erindring|Groop exhibition at Galerie Pi, Copenhagen (with DeV+)

2018 Notes on Light / Noter om lys, Solo exhibition at Eks-Rummet

2018 Cover, Groop exhibition at Eks-Rummet

2017 Mørke og lyse rum, Bispegården, Kalundborg with Kristina Kvalvik, Susanne Schmidt-Nielsen, Kristine Djurhuus, Kirsten Schauser.

2016 En Samtale Med Vilhelm (with DeV+), Sydslesvigs danske Kunstforening, Flensburg, Germany

2016 En Samtale Med Vilhelm (with DeV+), Kunstpakhuset i Ikast

2016 En Samtale Med Vilhelm (with DeV+), Kalundborg Museum, Lindegården

2015 Imago Mundi, Denmark collection, curated by Sophus Gether, Venice, Italy

2015 A house is a nest for dreaming, B-Huset, Copenhagen

2014 Interval, North Exhibitionspace - With Kirsten Rotbøll Lassen, Gitte Svendsen, Kirsten Schauser og Ina A. Mance

2014 Peacehub PICTURE PEACE, Circle 1 Gallery in Berlin, Germany

2014 Peacehub PICTURE PEACE, Bl-nk Gallery in London, UK

2014 Peacehub PICTURE PEACE, Gallery Beit HaGefen - Arab Jewish Culture Center, Haifa Israel

2013 Open Room Of Us All, B-huset, open studio, Copenhagen

2013 A Room of Ones Own, Halmlageret, Carlsberg, Groopshow with B-huset

2012 Reconstructions of Light, B-huset, open studio, Copenhagen

2012 Summer Exhibition, Masnedøfortet, Vordingborg, curated by Parul Modha

2011 Light and Darkness| with Lotte Leth, Circulationcentralen, Malmo, Sweden

2011 Not a place to meet, Eleftaria, Plomari, Greece

2010 Here's the way, The shed, Dollerup, curated by Sophie Hjerl

2009 Capturing the Light, Kostamanis House, Plomari, Greece (solo)


Juried exhibitions
2009 KE Artists Autumn Exhibition, Gammelholtegaard

2006 KP Artists Easter Exhibition, Aarhus Kunstbygning


Curatorial Projects
2011
Not a place to Meet, Eleftaria, Plomari, Greece in collaboration with Henrik Sandner

2008 Moving the voices of Prayer, Jerusalem, Israel, in collaboration with Henrik Sandner


Scholarships

2019 Statens Værksteder for Kunst

2018 Statens Værksteder for Kunst

2014 Sara og Natan Margulies Fond

1995 Sleipnir, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art

1991-1992 Erasmus


Represented in the Millet Art Association Year Book 12 and 14, Japan and France

Press:

SVFK: https://svfk.dk/profile/michala-norup

Kunsten.nu: https://kunsten.nu/artguide/profile/michala-norup/

Photofemmeunited: https://www.fotofemmeunited.com/article/68-michala-norup/

Immemorymag: https://www.facebook.com/imemmorymag

Idoart with DeV+: https://www.idoart.dk/kalender/kunstnergruppen-dev-imellem-tusinde-tider


Teaching and lecturing:

2024 Teaching artist workshop in photography at Viborg Visuel HF, Viborg

2021, 2022, 2023 Teaching artist workshop at Talentskolen, Næstved

2019- Creativity, art and didactics at Pædagoguddannelsen, Københavns Professionshøjskole, Campus Carlsberg and Campus Nord

2019 Lecture at DPU: Doing material culture and didactics, Aarhus University, Emdrup

2018 Lecture on didactics at Malmö Art Academy

2018 Lecture at DPU:Doing material culture and didactics, Aarhus University, Emdrup

2018 Censor at Talentskolen, Næstved

2018 Teaching artist workshop at BGK Roskilde

2017 Teaching artist workshop at Talentskolen (talenttræf), Næstved

2017 Lecture at DPU:Doing material culture and didactics, the artistic approach, Aarhus University, Emdrup

2017 Teaching artist workshop at Talentskolen, Næstved


You are always welcome to contact me if you are interested in private artistick coaching.

Coaching sesiones can be held in english or danish in my studio, in your studio or online.